Georges Valois
Commune of France |party= Soreliens |events= |status = Alive }}Georges Valois is a French politician and the leader of the Sorelien faction in the BGT of the Commune of France. A former member of the Action Française before the Weltkrieg, he seeks a new form of economic and social organization synthesising socialist and nationalist thought. He is one of the most prominent followers of the Social-Nationalist side of the Totalist ideology. History Early life Valois was born in Paris into a working-class and peasant family. Starting off as an anarchist militant, he contributes to the newspaper L'Humanité nouvelle. He later becomes the disciple of Georges Sorel, theoretician of National-Syndicalism. In 1910, Sorel and Valois decided to create a national-socialist newspaper named La cité française. A prospectus of the new newspaper was published in July 1910 and signed by both the revolutionary syndicalists Sorel and Edouard Berth, and by the members of Action française Jean Variot, Pierre Gilbert and Georges Valois. Disagreements between Variot and Valois cause the newspaper to never be published. After this failure, Sorel decides to form his own newspaper. This bi-weekly paper called Independence is published from March 1911 to July 1913. The themes are similar to those of Action Française, nationalism, anti-Semitism and desire to defend the French culture and its Greco-Roman heritage. During preparations for the launch of La Cité française, Sorel encouraged Berth and Valois to work together. In March 1911, Henri Lagrange, a member of Action française, suggested to Valois to create a group to study economic and social issues from a nationalist point of view. Valois persuades Lagrange to expand the group to non-nationalists, trade unionists and anti-Democrats. Valois later wrote that it was to create a common platform for the anti-Democrats. The new political group named Cercle Proudhon was founded on December 16, 1911. It includes Berth, Valois, Lagrange, the trade unionist Albert Vincent and the royalists Gilbert Maire, Rene de Marans, André Pascalon, and Marius Riquier. As the name suggests, the group claims to be inspired by the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. He is also inspired by the ideas of Sorel (who, however, criticizes this company severely) and Maurras. In January 1912, the newspaper Cahiers du cercle Proudhon is for the first time published. Fourth French Revolution It is unknown what Valois was doing during the Weltkrieg. He was, however, an important member of the Revolution in 1919. Despite being distressed by the defeat of France, Valois considered this defeat as necessary since it allowed the end of bourgeois domination over France and the installation of a revolutionary state in France. Leader of the Sorelien Faction After the end of the Weltkrieg and the Ceasefire of Copenhagen, Valois planned the bases of his faction inspired by the name of his mentor died in 1922, the Sorelians. He supported the creation of a more centralized State with the expansion of the powers of the Comité de Salut Publique. Valois also does not hide his revengeful spirit against Germany and the Reichspakt. With the centralization of power in the hands of the "Guide de la Nation Française", Valois advocates the creation of a war industry and a professional army, putting an end to German hegemony in Europe. A fierce rivalry developed between the Sorelians and the Jacobins of Marcel Déat, a group supporting the Leninist side of Totalism. This vision of a Sorelian state frightens many communards, especially among the Travailleurs and Anarchistes. Despite this, his ideas have a success among the younger generation, allowing the arrival of a man such as Jacque Doriot, Marcel Bucard or Hubert Lagardelle. Oswald Mosley sees in Valois's ideas an inspiration for the creation of a new authoritarian ideology allowing the advent of a pure socialist regime, homogeneous with the resort of militarism, uniting with nationalism and getting rid of its undesirable elements such as the reactionaries, the bourgeois or the democrats: The Totalist State. Category:People Category:Europeans